Just Being Himself

Toledo defensive backs coach Corey Parker always knew that being himself would get him places, as a player or as a coach.  

Throughout his football career, both on the sidelines and on the field, it has, and he’s had plenty of success doing so.  

Before Parker took over the Rockets’ secondary — which held nine opponents to less than 200 yards passing and six to less than 100 while winning a MAC Championship and the Boca Raton Bowl this past season — he was busy turning River Rouge High School (Mich.) into one of the best high school football programs in Michigan. In 13 years as the head coach of the Panthers, Parker recorded an overall record of 113-34, won a state title in 2019, made three state championship game appearances, five state semifinal appearances, won seven district titles, five regional crowns, and qualified for the state playoffs in 12 consecutive seasons. All of this came after the program had won eight games in the previous four seasons.  

And he did it all while being himself with a fiery personality and a desire to give kids an opportunity to succeed.  

Parker’s career started as a defensive back at Eastern Michigan. He became a three-time letter-winner and was named a captain during his final season with the Eagles. It was during his time in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where Parker said he learned the foundation of what led to his coaching career. 

In his three years in the Eagles’ secondary, Parker went up against a multitude of different offenses as Eastern Michigan had multiple offensive coordinators. He learned about pro-style offenses, west coast style offenses, and spread offenses as well.  

As a player, he got to learn how to limit those different styles and how he could attack them defensively. Parker said that when he became a coach, he leaned on information he picked up as a player and applied it to his preparation.  

“That was a blessing for me to come into coaching with all of that information because the one thing about this game that I think gets a little bit further from us as coaches is the level of information that’s out there,” Parker said. “Having all the skills is one thing, but when there are things that are put together to work against you, if you don’t know about it, you can’t defend it or you can’t score because you don’t have the necessary information. So, when I got into coaching, I already had a lot of information already prepared.”  

Parker said he knew he wanted to be a coach someday but his first opportunity to do so came a little sooner than he expected. 

After playing at Eastern Michigan, Parker was getting set to play for the Ottawa Renegades in the Canadian Football League, but the franchise folded before his first season and Parker was left looking for another job to support his family.  

Luck and the reputation that he had built for himself ended up paying off again when he ran into the coach that recruited him to play at Eastern Michigan, as he was heading into a restaurant for a job interview.  

At the time John Dignan was the defensive coordinator at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School under legendary coach Scott Merchant.  

“They are about to go have lunch and I’m walking through that same parking lot in Novi, Michigan at a place called Lucky Strike,” Parker said. “I was on my way there to apply for a job and he (Dignan) sees me, and he goes ‘Hey, what’s going on? What are you doing? Come have lunch with us.’ I was like ‘Man I’m about to go apply for a job right now.’ and he’s like ‘Come with us we’re about to give you a job right now.’ But that just goes back to who I was as a player and how I treated people because he probably wouldn’t have yelled my name out and just waved if I had treated him poorly or if I was bad news. So, what he knew about me from the leadership position that I had, gave him a good idea that I could be a good coach for him.”  

From then on, Parker fell in love with the job. He cut his teeth as the defensive backs coach under Merchant and Dignan. Then, Parker went to Ann Arbor Huron High School as the defensive backs and wide receivers coach the following year before heading to Inkster as a co-defensive coordinator for his former high school coach, Greg Carter. 

Funnily enough, Parker said when he first started looking for coaching gigs Carter told him that he had to go cut his teeth elsewhere. 

“He would not let me coach with him at first because he told me I had to go get my butt whooped somewhere else,” Parker said with a laugh.  

During his lone season at Inkster, Parker got recognized again for his exciting and fiery personality on the sideline. He was noticed by the River Rouge athletic director at the time who had come to an Inkster football game because the former band director from River Rogue had moved to Inkster.  

“Everyone came to the game at halftime to watch the band play, but he was also seeing my crazy butt running up and down the sideline giving kids high-fives but really just making sure we were keeping teams from scoring touchdowns and catching first downs,” Parker said. “So, he saw that and then we went to the state championship and probably had one of the best defenses in the state of Michigan at the time. He then offered me the opportunity to become the head coach at River Rouge at the age of 25.”  

Parker first had to talk it through with his Autumn, who was his fiancé at the time and a River Rouge alumna who was the valedictorian of her class. Rather than attack the opportunity on his own, Parker said he wanted to do it with his wife by his side.  

“I called her and said ‘Hey, River Rouge wants to offer me the head coaching job,’ she said ‘Babe, don’t take the job, we are a basketball school, we are terrible at football,’” Parker said with another chuckle. “I told her I felt like I could change the place if she came with me. She was preparing to finish medical school at the time and she was preparing to go into a residency but she was willing to forego her residency because I had a plan and a belief in my vision that we could change the culture of the building.”  

From there, Parker went to work. His first goal was to completely recreate the culture of the program. He did so by first removing any players that weren’t willing to align with how he wanted his team to be perceived— even if it meant kicking off the best players on the team.  

“I wanted the guys that represent academic success, great culture, hardworking young men that you love and respect,” Parker said. “Sometimes the crazy part about it is, those guys aren’t the most athletic. They’re not the best players. Sometimes they are just good kids and that’s what I wanted. I wanted to build those kids up.”  

During that first season, Parker utilized his background as a personal trainer and got his players in the weight room. The Panthers took their lumps with an overall record of 2-7 but that was where things started to turn around. They earned a 6-4 record the following season before suffering a first-round playoff loss to Gabriel Richard. 

Two years later, during the 2012 season, the Panthers went undefeated during the regular season and recorded seven shutouts. After two playoff wins, Parker and the Panthers fell to Gabriel Richard again, ending their season with a 16-6 loss.  

Over the next few years, the winning continued at River Rouge and that success attracted more players from their area. The Panthers made a name for themselves as they became one of the premier programs in Michigan. But Parker said how their 2018 season ended truly stuck out to him as a turning point within the program.  

After losing their first game of the season, a 40-7 decision against Cass Tech, the Panthers won eight straight games where they only allowed one touchdown and scored 392 points. River Rouge’s season then came to an abrupt end in the playoffs with a 7-6 loss to King, a perennial powerhouse in Michigan high school football, according to Parker.  

“I’ve got a lot of respect for all three of the coaches they’ve had there, and we lost to them 7-6 in the first round of the playoffs at their field. We went toe-to-toe with them until the bitter end,” Parker said. “I knew we had turned a corner then. We didn’t win a district championship that year. We didn’t go to the semis. 

“They (the Panthers) were continuously fighting, and they didn’t know what they were fighting for. They were fighting to win, but they really didn’t know what they were fighting against. Like, they were fighting a juggernaut and they lost 7-6. We didn’t finish the game the way we should have but it turned into a situation where they learned so much about themselves and we learned so much about our program.”  

A year later, Parker and the Panthers achieved the ultimate goal of capturing a state championship by defeating Muskegon in the Division III finals. Parker and his team climbed the mountain on the field, but they did so off it as well, which was what the former EMU defensive back is most proud of.  

Along with building up the football program into one of the best in Michigan, Parker and his wife also helped restore River Rouge. They contributed to the increase in enrollment and sent over 100 athletes to college during his 13 seasons at the school.  

“We did some phenomenal things but most of all, the one thing that we can really hold our hats to is we put all those young men in all those different schools around the country because a lot of them are first-generation college students from their family,” Parker said. “My wife did the same thing with a lot of her cheerleaders and general ed students that weren’t athletes. Now the school has about 1,000 people in it, and they have a financial surplus, some money to work with to hire some really good teachers and to make sure they have aesthetically looking classrooms and equipment to work with. I think we really did God’s work and did a really good job in that place.”   

All of that success brought a lot of eyes to the River Rouge program and Parker said several universities had reached out about bringing him on board. Eventually, he felt like coaching under Jason Candle at Toledo was the right move for what he was looking to accomplish next.  

After a successful 2022 season, you can see Parker is doing the same thing he’s always done.  

He’s just being himself and having success while doing so.